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Watch: Jack Huston celebrates his ‘tragic end’ on ‘Boardwalk Empire’

Over four seasons of “Boardwalk Empire,” the character Richard Harrow, a killer with faultless killer precision but a guilty conscience, became a fan favourite. As actor Jack Huston recalled during his webcam chat with Gold Derby (watch below): “From sending that tape in London of my audition, thinking I had three episodes and then… to stay on it for four years, that was pretty special. I feel in every possible sense blessed.”

Despite his indelible and nuanced performance, Huston has yet to be nominated for an Emmy. And, with his character meeting a tragic fate underneath the boardwalk at the end of this season, he know this year is his last shot for this role:“It’s a tough category, it is tough… television is so brilliant right now, there’s so many fantastic shows … Of course it would be wonderful to get a nomination; this is my last year to think about getting a nomination … but even me, just looking at all these people is like ‘wow.’”

Even he was surprised to discover that his character was being killed off. “The script I got and everyone got was a dummy script, it had a dummy ending, it didn’t say I got killed. So no one knew… and I read it and I said something doesn’t sound right here … and then sure enough I get a call from Terry [Winter] and he was like ‘yeah it’s time, you know it’s time for Richard’ and I was so with him, I was like ‘It absolutely is time …’ But when it came to shooting it. .. no one could believe it.”

As for his character’s final moment, he says “it was just such a pleasure. To be given the last shot of the last scene in the last episode of the last season, it meant the world to me. I know they are only doing eight more episodes and I got this incredible send off. When the show ends, everyone ends with the show; I mean Richard really got a special ending I feel. I feel very honoured by that.”

And Huston admits, “whenever you’re playing a tragic character you realise they have to end tragically as well.” Will his Emmy hopes meet with a tragic end?

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